Life in Bergen-Belsen DP Camp: New Book Inspired by JDC Worker's Photo Album

On a recent Friday morning in mid-town Manhattan, history visited the headquarters of the JDC. Dr. Eric Somers and Rene Kok, scholars with the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation presented JDC Executive Vice President Steven Schwager with a copy of Somers' recently published book, "Jewish Displaced Persons in Camp Bergen Belsen 1945-1950."

"As we mark JDC’s 90th anniversary," Schwager noted, "we continue to look back on our past as a source of knowledge and also inspiration. This book gives testimony to an extraordinary effort on the part of the survivors and those JDC staffers who lived and worked at Bergen Belsen on their behalf."

The book, which chronicles the daily life of the survivors and Displaced Persons living in Bergen-Belsen DP Camp following WWII was inspired by an 1,100-photo album created by Zippy Orlin, a JDC worker who volunteered in Bergen-Belsen DP Camp.

Dr. Somers, who had presented his book to the United States Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC, recalled how the album came to his institute. "Sometime after Zippy Orlin had passed away, her brother, who was not young himself, carried this 33-pound book to our doors, saying he had fulfilled his obligation to insure that this episode in his sister’s life would not be forgotten. We had many questions, but only days after delivering the book, Ms. Orlin’s brother passed away."

The book, whose photos document life in the camp ranging from soccer practices to the burning of corpses in an attempt to stem an outbreak of typhoid, is dedicated to former JDC Archive Director Eric Nooter (z"l), who had published on the subject and was planning to contribute to this book but passed away before he could do so. Nooter’s widow, Patty Dann, was also on hand to receive a copy of the book.

At the end of the meeting, Joseph Rosensaft, a mature gentleman, stood up and declared, "I would like to applaud this splendid documentation and note that the youngest member of the governing council at Bergen Belsen, who is also currently the only surviving member of the council, is greatly appreciative that the memory of all that was done for the survivors is being maintained. I know he is appreciative, because he is me."